Wednesday

Suspense has been building for months, since a homelessness consultant told the community it needs a large shelter for adults struggling to get off the street.

The big question is: Where will it go?

With more than a month left before the consultant offers his opinion, anxiety has started to boil over and political lines are being drawn, particularly in Sarasota, which is home to the majority of Sarasota County's population of homeless adults.

Some city commissioners and the city manager have said Sarasota should not have to shoulder another shelter. Other city and county officials caution that leaders need to be patient and let Robert Marbut, the consultant they hired, finish his work.

"This is by far the worst I've ever seen of people trying to predetermine outcomes of research before the research is even done," Marbut said.

He will complete a strategic plan in November, and said he is basing results on hard numbers, not anecdotes and politics. Marbut said he has looked at 42 shelter sites, including four in Venice, and received three more suggested locations this week. He needs to look more closely at the facilities and will include his top-ranked site choices in the plan.

The consultant has suggested the shelter for the chronically homeless should be near other services, such as the Salvation Army and Resurrection House day center in the Rosemary District north of downtown.

But City Commissioner Willie Shaw, who represents much of north Sarasota, has repeatedly said the shelter should not be in his district.

Ten north Sarasota residents and representatives of businesses echoed that message to the City Commission last Monday. They said their neighborhoods were already burdened by high crime and homelessness, and they didn't want a new facility adding to that.

Shaw said the neighborhood's residents are not being heard.

"We need to have this conversation open," Shaw said. "And definitely, definitely, by no means should any such facility be place in the North Sarasota District One."

Dawn Crable, representing the Pines of Sarasota nursing home on North Orange Avenue, said it and other nearby businesses had "long felt the challenge of even the perception of there being a safety concern."

The Pines was a major employer for the city, Crable said, and plans expanding on recently purchased land. But those plans could be jeopardized by a new homeless facility in the area, she said.

After those comments, City Commissioner Susan Chapman said she, too, was unsure it was wise to locate a new shelter in the city, and questioned why it should be near existing services.

"Why should we, as a city — because we have been kind, generous and responsible — be burdened with providing services to the region's chronic homeless?"

City Manager Tom Barwin said adding the shelter here could hurt Sarasota and ignore future needs of growing cities like North Port. He suggested looking east, near Interstate 75.

"In a way it's premature to get site specific, but I think it's really critical to be sure there is some transparency, some public conversation about the strategic implications here. All of our communities have to be healthy in order to help the homeless," Barwin said. "It isn't NIMBY-ism and it isn't political. It is, I think, very high-level strategic thinking."

But city commissioners Suzanne Atwell and Paul Caragiulo said it was premature to publicly debate the location of a homeless facility while still awaiting Marbut's report.

"I have real concerns about some of the debate going on," Atwell said. People in the community are anxious about the future location of homeless services, she said, and there are as many ideas as there are stakeholders.

"But when there are too many precipitous comments going on, it takes on a life of its own. I don't want that to contaminate Dr. Marbut's work," she said.

Caragiulo said he thought the issue risked spoiling the positive momentum now built up between the city and county.

County Commissioner Joe Barbetta also said the city's discussion is premature. The city and county hired Marbut for his expertise, and should wait to receive it, he said.

Afterward, the city and county will discuss Marbut's suggestions. If his top choice is in the county, Barbetta said he would not rule that out.

He said he believes all sides can settle on a site, "if everybody parks their egos at the door and doesn't have an agenda and tries to do what they were elected to do."

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